School petitions high court over graduation flap

The dispute over whether Brookfield public high school can hold graduation ceremonies inside a church could be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Elmbrook School District filed a petition Friday asking the nation's highest court to review a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that found the school's practice of holding graduation ceremonies in Elmbrook Church violates the separation of church and state.

The case started in 2009 when the Washington, D.C.-based group Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued. A Washington-based group on the other side, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, is helping to petition the Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court accepts less than 2 percent of the thousands of petitions it receives each year.

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